Here’s the perfect easy appetizer for a holiday crowd. It’s versatile in terms of how you can serve it, it’s economical as it stretches an expensive ingredient, and a little goes a long way. It’s even better if you make it a day ahead, so you save time as well.
This mousse is smooth and creamy with a lightly smoky flavor I can’t resist. Horseradish gives it some zing, the lemon a clean citrus note, the capers a little salty bite and the dill an herbal freshness. If served on crostini you also get a nice crunchy contrast to the creamy mousse.
For parties I like to use a piping bag with a star tip (also a great way to keep it in the refrigerator). Serve on crackers, cucumber slices, endive spears, in little baked phyllo cups or on crostini. You can even skip the piping bag all together and spoon the mousse into a ramekin or small bowl and allow your guests to spread it themselves on your choice of base.
Easy Smoked Salmon Mousse
For the crostini, slice a baguette crosswise into small rounds. Melt a couple of tablespoons of unsalted butter and olive oil together, then sprinkle in a little granulated garlic. Brush the butter-oil mix onto the bread rounds and bake or broil until golden.
Yield 24 ounces, serves approximately 12, depending on how you serve it, maybe more
Ingredients
8 ounces smoked salmon
8 ounces low fat cottage cheese
8 ounces low fat whipped cream cheese
1 lemon, juiced and zested for garnish
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill, plus fronds for garnish
1 tablespoon horseradish, or more to taste
1 teaspoon smoked paprika, or more to taste
Milk or cream to thin as needed
Optional garnish: Non-pareil capers, tiny diced red onion, smoked paprika, sliced chives, extra lemon zest and dill
Optional bases: crostini, crackers, cucumber rounds, phyllo cups, bread slices
Directions
Place smoked salmon through paprika in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel knife. Process until smooth. Thin with a little milk or cream if needed. Adjust seasoning to your taste. Refrigerate overnight or until ready to serve.
For serving, place in a bowl for spreading or pipe onto crostini or bread slices.
Here are other recipes using smoked salmon you might enjoy:
Nine different smoked salmon ideas from Simply Recipes
Salmon Spread Recipe: Salmon Rillettes from David Lebovitz
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Sally, I made this to take to my parents for Christmas…but because we were transporting this along w/ a ham, i chose to prepare it as a dip, w/ the capers, onions and dill lined on top. It was a big hit! I doubled it and left some behind for morning bagels the next day. Thank you!!!
My parents are coming for Easter brunch and they love salmon! Thanks for the great appetizer idea
They were GREAT! YUM! Thanks for bringing them.
Sally, this is delicious!Thank you for sharing! I will be making this appetizer for my cocktail party next weekened.
FANTASTIC FLAVORS but TOO THIN – help!
This firmed up nicely overnight in the refrigerator, but on removing it from the cold refrigerator and loading the pastry bag, the mousse becomes too thin and unsuitable for piping.
How can I thicken the mousse so it can be piped onto crostini within the next 4 hours?
Help & Thank you!
Hi Stephanie. I’m not sure what went wrong for you. I’ve not had that happen. Maybe the cottage cheese was too juicy? I’d add more cream cheese until it’s thicker. Taste and add more seasoning (lemon, smoked paprika, etc). If you lose to much of the salmon flavor, add more salmon. Put it all back in the food processor and process to combine. Let me know what happens. You can always skip piping and place in a nice bowl or crock to serve as a spread.
You might try draining the cottage cheese in a fine strainer or through cheese cloth. I’ve not had to do that. In the future, try another brand of cottage cheese. They do vary.